After dinner Liv and Michele took a few of us around the corner to where there was a local traditional festival on earlier. They had met the locals and wanted to go back to see them again, listen to the music and have another dance. We walked out and even noticed a little light rain, which was lovely. We were disappointed though as when we rounded the corner we saw that everyone had gone home. Most of the group decided to go to bed, but myself, liv and Mills hung around in the middle of the road chatting – After a few minutes a local Nepalese security guard/policeman appeared beside us and started asking where we were from, where we were staying and what we were doing. We thought we were in trouble for breaking some sort if curfew, but it turned out that he had seen us and just decided to come over for a chat. His English wasn’t too good, but Liv speaks a little Nepalese and between them we managed to understand each other. It was getting late and so when he said goodnight, we walked the 200 yards or so back to the hotel and stood outside chatting a while longer and just enjoying the calm and peace of Nepal.

Liv was due to leave the bus for a couple of days at 4am, so we all went to bed and I promised her that I would get up to say goodbye......

Back in my room, I told Barry of my plan to get up and he agreed it was a good idea and would join me. Our alarm went off at 3.30 and we were downstairs a few minutes later, ready to wave Liv off, but the Hotel receptionist told us that she had left a couple of minutes earlier on a rickshaw to wards the bus stop. I was a little disappointed, but understood that she wanted to get there on time. Typical eh!! Normally women are always late!! haahaa!!

After a few hours back in bed I woke up and looked out the window -You can see mountains in the distance and the roads are busy but quiet, there is the sound of Nepalese music playing somewhere close and the weather is a little cooler. After the madness of India, this morning is so completely different. My first impressions of people and places aren’t always right, but I can already tell that I’m going to like Nepal.

Today we leave at 9am and head the 3-4 hours to a national park called Chitwan, where we are staying for a few days. We have elephant rides, jungle treks and stay in a compound in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the animals. At night the power goes off early and there’s nothing to do but sit around chatting, drinking and mellowing out. There is no internet and we are expecting no mobile phone coverage either, so everyone will be out of touch with the world for the duration of our stay. Its going to be great!!!